The Colas c18.36

c18.36

Śakkarakkōṭṭam has been identified with Cakrakōṭya which finds mention in a Nāgavamśi copper-plate grant from Bastar dated A.D. 1065, and its modern representative is probably Citrakūṭa or Citrakoṭa, 8 miles from Rājāpura where the copper-plates were found. Rājāpura, the capital of Bastar, is itself 22 miles north-west of Jagadālpur, on the bank of the Indrāvati river.⁶⁶ Śakkarakkōṭṭam and the places that follow up to Māśuṇi-dēśam have thus to be sought in the territory contiguous to the Vēṅgī kingdom to the north-west of it. Māśuṇi-dēśam literally means the land of the snakes; the kings of the Chindaka family represented by the Rājāpura plates, called themselves Nāga-vamśo-dbhava (born of the Cobra race), and Bhōgavatī-pura-varēśvara (lord of Bhōgavatī, the best of cities); in a later stone inscription of Śaka 1140, one of them is called Śrī-bhujagavara-bhūṣaṇa-mahārājulu,⁶⁷ the māharāja who was the ornament of the race of the best of serpents. It is perfectly reasonable to suppose that by Māśuṇi-dēśam is meant the land ruled by these kings. On this assumption, Maduraimaṇḍalam, Nāmaṇaikkōṇam and Pañcappaḷḷi must be sought in the same region and held to be parts of Māśuṇi-dēśam. It may be noted that Cakrakōṭa is itself called a maṇḍala⁶⁸ like Madurai-maṇḍalam, and that the donor of the Rājāpura plates is called Madhurāntaka.